


Maybe if We Close Our Eyes we Can Reach the Stars

by wellthizizdeprezzing



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, Action, Adventure, Discovery, Emma is an astronaut, F/F, No tags to avoid spoilers, Planets, Plants, Regina is an alien, Romance, SQ Supernova, Science Fiction, Some angst, Space Battles, Space Exploration, Stars, happy-ish ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:55:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26196751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wellthizizdeprezzing/pseuds/wellthizizdeprezzing
Summary: Emma is a lonely astronaut. Regina is an adventuring alien. Their paths cross leading them onto a journey of new discovery. Between galaxies and many miles of cold black space, despite not speaking the same language, they manage to fall for each other.An out of this world love story.
Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan
Comments: 46
Kudos: 110
Collections: Swan Queen Supernova V: Forever Starstruck





	Maybe if We Close Our Eyes we Can Reach the Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [If we close our eyes maybe we can reach the stars - [Manips]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26157334) by [Dragoon23](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragoon23/pseuds/Dragoon23). 
  * Inspired by [If we close our eyes maybe we can reach the stars [Art]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26197954) by [Lucazt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucazt/pseuds/Lucazt). 



> A/N: Decided to write a SQ for a genre I've never tried before: sci-fi.  
> It was an adventure writing this and trying to fit everything close to 10k words but it was fun.  
> Thank you to the artists for their amazing work for this piece.

The Kepler 64 system, a quadrant of the universe known to have four stars with a singular planet orbiting it. A system, soon to be called home by Emma. She was to go there and record for NASA anything of interest. Such as the physics surrounding the planet and star system. Any new materials that did not exist on Earth. But, most importantly, she was being sent there to record any sightings of alien life.

The human race had forever longed to find any signs of extraterrestrial life and if it was out of their grasp on Earth, then they would be sure to go out of their way to find it themselves. The year 3000 had brought with it many new inventions, technology bringing humans further and further along in discovery of new things. As such space travel for long distances out of the Milky Way and for thousands of years was now possible. And Emma Swan was one of the candidates that had signed up for the first experimental trial.

Emma Swan didn't have much, which was why she didn't mind leaving Earth. Despite technology making many things better, people made many things worse. Their arrogance knew no bounds and it lead to much suffering for others. Emma had grown up in the poor districts, left unloved by her parents and to fend for herself. She'd grown up on the mean streets, with a crew of other orphans that no one wanted. Together they stole and fought, just to get shelter and food. It was a rough world. But by some miracle she'd been given a second chance and at the age of fourteen she had been taken in by a kind hearted woman named Mary. She was a retired nun and she had given second chances to many children in her life. Emma was her most recent project.

And Emma wasn't trusting. Sitting in that jail cell, awaiting her sentence of several years for the petty theft she had done, Mary had strode in, spoken to some cops, and gotten Emma out of jail, as long as Emma agreed to go live with her for community hours.

Emma hadn't trusted the woman. She'd grown up to trust no one with money because they often lied. She only trusted her crew, and even they were hard to trust sometimes if they were extra hungry or cranky. But Emma would also be stupid to let the opportunity to escape jail go by her. She'd go with the odd woman and rob her, before returning to find her crew.

That was the plan, but things ended up differently for Emma, and while she had been frustrated with it at first, now, looking back, she was blessed. Happy for it. Because if she had gone back to the streets she wouldn't have made it this far. Maybe lived two more decades if she was lucky. But, Mary gave her not only shelter, and food, and little to no judgment, but she also raised her.

She cared for Emma's health, for her well being, and for her emotional state. Emma had been frustrated with this care, and tried to run away at first, but the ankle bracelet monitoring her wouldn't let her leave the premises like she'd planned to do. She was stuck with Mary until her 500 hours of community service were over. While Emma behaved like a difficult brat, Mary had the patience of an angel.

And oddly enough, she loved Emma.

Which Emma couldn't understand. “Why do you love me when my own parents couldn't?” she'd asked one day, after too kind a deed made her break out in tears despite her best efforts to maintain a cold front.

“Because I have so much love to give and you need that love,” Mary had stated simply, hugging Emma's shaking form to her.

Not only did Mary care for Emma, but she also gave her the chance to become educated. Emma only had a rudimentary education. Enough to read at an elementary level. Same with her writing and math. Just enough to be useful on the streets but not enough to be smart. The older kids had taught her what they knew and in her spare moments when she wasn't busy trying to survive, she gathered scraps of newspaper and looked through windows into book stores to learn how to read. So, she was a bit better than all the other kids with that, but she still had huge gaps in her education.

Mary hired a tutor to help with this. Several, in fact. One for English, Science, and math. And Mary would teach Emma everything else in between such as cooking, how to take care of herself, and how to behave properly.

Emma had no idea how Mary could afford any of this. Especially if she had been a nun. But it turned out her father had been extremely rich. One of those megalomaniac tycoons that left her everything in his will, but which she had escaped by becoming a nun because she couldn't deal with his lavish way of living. She sold off much of his stock and his estates but only kept the money so she could donate to charities or give to people in need that she came across later in life.

People such as Emma.

Before Emma even knew it, her 500 hours of community service were up, but she didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay, and Mary let her. They became a family. And Emma flourished under her. It was all thanks to Mary that Emma was doing the space program, called Final Frontier.

Emma had taken to science very easily, devouring everything she could about the subject and her love for science inspired her to want to do more with it. And what better way than to do that with Final Frontier. A devised program that was partially founded by NASA and private investors. Emma had studied in college for this sort of thing. And she had cried tears of joy when her hard work in her astrophysics major paid off and she was able to join the program.

It was going to be a rigorous program. Involving several years of studying the mission details, training on how to deal with emergency situations, learning more physics, along with other sciences and math. It was a lot mentally to take in, but also physically. She had to work out routinely to make sure she was physically capable of taking care of herself in outer space. Every Pioneer, as they were called, would be in the space craft alone in order to gain as much ground available in the different systems. It was going to be very lonely up there, and bleak in a way not many of them liked to think about. Once she gathered her data and did her work, there would be no way of coming back home. The trip was one way.

Human technology had only gone so far, and it had no interest in coming back.

But, Emma figured, this would be for the better. Mary had died the year after Emma finished college and without her, there was no one else left on this planet that Emma cared about. Even the street crew she had long lost touch with. It was just her, against the world. So why not leave? Make her own path, go down in history as someone who mattered, who had dedicated her life to the betterment of humanity like Mary had tried to do her whole life.

Other Pioneers had families they were leaving behind. Which Emma thought was very stupid of them. If they had loved ones, why would they give that up? If Emma had someone to love and cherish, she wouldn't be leaving. She would stay with them, no matter what. Because to be loved was a precious thing, one that Mary had shown her the exact value of.

It wasn't even like the Pioneers would ever hear back from their loved ones. They would be in cryostasis for however long their journey was. By then, their loves ones would be gone. Even with cybernetic enhancements to keep humans living to the ripe old age of 150, that wasn't enough. Emma couldn't imagine the pain of never being able to speak to a loved one. Knowing they were out there, drifting through space, but unable to be contacted with. Living the rest of her life longing to talk with them once more, to just hear their voice once more or see their face one last time. Or being the Pioneer and having slept through the rest of your loved one's life, waking up to knowing her selfish decision left her loved one suffering.

Emma already had no one left so it would make little difference to her to leave this overused planet. However, despite her tough exterior, she really hadn't expected how lonely being up in space could get. Lonely enough that at first she thought she was hallucinating what she saw. But shortly, it would turn out to be a very different matter, and it would change the rest of her life forever.

* * *

The wonder is what kicks in at first. The wonder of having made it where no other man has before. And honestly, floating weightless through her ship as she goes up to the window, is spectacular. Being surrounded by inky blackness as the system gets closer to her. Watching with awe the encroaching harsh glow of the four stars and the one planet.

Getting to this moment has taken her several human years- 28, in fact. But physically getting her to this part of space has taken her 300. Three hundred years of slumber. She's far beyond humanity, having left everything human beyond. Far space travel really is possible. It's amazing. She's know it's possible for a long time, has even worked partially on it in the Final Frontier labs, but it's an entirely different manner when actually experienced firsthand.

She needs a long moment to absorb this, to stop feeling numb from cryostasis. The ship has an AI, built specifically to keep her company and to take care of her needs. Right now it's brewing her a cup of coffee to warm her up.

“My name is David,” it introduces itself to her in a warm but even male voice. It sounds practically human except for the clipped vowels. If she closes her eyes she can fool herself into thinking she's not alone. But she is, and will be, for the rest of her life up here. “I have been steering your ship safely for you for the past three hundred years. Welcome to the Kepler 64 system.” It's a marvel how far AI has come even in the few years of Emma's human life.

“Thanks, David,” she gets up to take the cup of coffee waiting for her in the kitchen. Her limbs are still a bit jerky, but she has no patience in waiting for them to fully wake up. She craves the flood of caffeine through her veins that will wake her up, as her mind feels groggy and she wishes to be more alert. The beverage is picked up with stiff fingers and held tightly with two hands so she doesn't drop it as she leans heavily against the counter tops and waits for the blood flow to prickle through her veins like pins and needles. The coffee tastes good and it's warm. It slowly fills her with heat.

She just hopes that David can make conversation as good as this coffee. She'll be relying on him to keep her sane.

“Any reports from mission control?” she asks, watching as the lights flicker orange, indicating he is listening to her and going to answer back. His voice echoes around the room.

“Mission control said to give you the first day off. We'll review your mission log tomorrow. Instead, I could put on some movies for you to watch. I have over a million hours of shows built in.”

Emma shakes her head. She's not in the mood for that. She just wants to relax, maybe look out the window to take in the universe around her, and stretch out her muscles. It's been a while since she's been awake and though she's slept this long, she still feels tired and like she could sleep more. It's probably just the remaining grogginess from the cryo. The coffee should wake her up soon.

Emma floats around after her coffee is done, and takes to doing slow cartwheels in the air. Her program gave her a special suit she needs to wear at all hours of the day so that her muscles don't deteriorate. Out in space, there's no way for her to use them. Even if she did employ artificial gravity it still wouldn't be the exact same. It wouldn't feel the same as walking on Earth.

Emma still has clear memories of Earth. The way her feet would slap against the pavement, the way a warm breeze would flow over her face stirring her hair, the way the sun would beat down on her. She couldn't imagine the heat from four suns, much like this system had. The planet no doubt was scorched, useless. But that was why the Pioneers were employed. So they could gather any relevant data, double check that there indeed was no alien life to be found here. To be frank, this system was more of a test run, to make sure she could get everything needed in order. The next system was more hopeful and where it would truly count. It had seven planets orbiting a sun much like Earth's. Possible life sustaining systems had been identified on it and it would be Emma's job to discover it.

She had to prep for it first.

“Enjoying space?” David's voice cut into her thoughts. She hesitated before answering, so many emotions sitting on her tongue.

“It's amazing. I can't wait to see what the other systems hold,” she answered, floating over to the kitchen; she was starved now. She wondered, how long until she forgot about how it had felt to be on Earth? On what solid ground felt like, on how it felt to breath air that wasn't artificially made and filtered in and out. She wondered, what happened to her Pioneer classmates?

She looked at the picture of them plastered on the fridge. All ten of them, smiling and in their academy suits, fresh from graduation. Emma missed Ruby the most out of all of them. The girl was a riot and the two of them had spent so much time helping each other succeed in that program. Ruby had left everything behind. She was a billionaire's daughter, and yet, despite having a cushy life on Earth, probably not having to work a single day in her life if she didn't have to, she chose to do something like this. Emma had never understood her logic. Even when Ruby explained it. “I just want to get as far away from my family as possible. And I saw this program, and it's the fucking farthest I can get away from them.”

“But, they love you. And you love them. Why leave?” Emma couldn't understand how someone who was cared for, wouldn't want to be cared for.

Ruby gave a rueful smile. “Sometimes, distance makes the heart grow fonder. And loving someone from far away is the only way to be able to love them at all.”

Emma had only been baffled by that response and shaken her head. But Ruby had switched the topic before more clarifications could be made. And out of respect for Ruby, Emma had refrained from seeing just exactly who was in her family or what they did. Something told her it would be better if she didn't know.

Emma sighed wistfully as she looked at the photo. She would miss Ruby. She knew that Ruby was destined for a system closer than Emma's. Ruby was supposed to wake up only after one hundred years of sleep. And if humans only lived 150 years maximum, then...her ship must be floating around, an empty husk, purpose completed. Emma wondered what Ruby must have felt like, or what she must have thought in her final moments. Emma hadn't even been able to pay her regards to her. She'd make her a tribute later.

Emma looked away from Ruby's stupidly grinning face, and her long brunette hair.

Ruby always did throw the best parties. Emma sure hoped she would throw the best ones in the afterlife as well.

Emma's blurry eyes skipped over to Neal and Robin, both handsome men with beards and short cropped hair. She'd become romantically involved with both of them for short periods of time, but she'd cut things off. No use in finding a loved one just before she had to leave them forever.

She knew they must have awoken fifty years before her. She could imagine them on their respective ships, with wrinkling skin, graying hair. They had wanted a photo or a trinket of hers to take along for the ride, for memories. But she had refused. It would only hurt more. She wondered, if they had it now, would they have looked at it? Pondered over what they could have had?

Many people dropped out of the program when the reality of what a cold and empty rest of the life awaited them. Even the temptation of everything that lay beyond was too little for them. Could not compensate for the fact of being alone.

Emma shook her head to clear her thoughts. Better not to dwell on these things. She had a mission to do. She knew what she had been getting into. She floated over to the food machine, where she would be getting all her meals from. The interface was user friendly and the machine booted up easily. Hundreds upon hundreds of food options came up, and she spent some time picking them out so that she could have the perfect first meal.

Their food was molecular. Meaning all she had to do was select a molecule of what food she wanted. They were labeled, Italian, Fast Food, Home Cooked- the list went on and one. Every single cataloged dish of humanity was there. Anything Emma could ever want was within her grasp easily. When she made a selection, the machine would then drop the molecule down onto the tray behind the glass wall and zap it. The meal would explode in front of her own eyes, into the correct size. The heat from the transformation would be enough to warm the food, which was already fully cooked, and she would have a meal to enjoy within seconds.

The food would never go bad, since molecules couldn't expire. And with the little amount of space they took she had enough food for a million years.

For her first meal she decided on spaghetti with vodka sauce. Then she took it to the table and sat down to eat it by the window as she watched the ship's trajectory grow closer to the planet.

And that, was how Emma's first day in space went.

* * *

_Log 54_

_I've arrived at the planet finally, after fifty four days since my awakening. As the ship went by I made sure to turn on the scanners so as to get long range scans of any threats or materials that would be of note. The scans revealed nothing in the surrounding space._

_The ship is currently out of the gravitational pull of the four suns and the planet in order to prevent being dragged in and thus burned. I will maintain my distance as I continue running scans. I will wait, as per orders, until the planet makes a full rotation so I can get a full map of the planet's surface and composition matter. Then, I will do the same to the suns, one by one._

_Swan, end._

Emma pressed the button to stop the recording. She attached the data she had to it, and then hit send. It would take months for it to report back to mission so it would similarly take months before she could get any feedback or additional information from the control central. Once she entered the second system, she knew it would take even longer, perhaps up to a year for the information to be processed, if it didn't get lost.

Emma stretched her hands above her head and yawned, long and loud. The soft buzzing and beeping of buttons around her filled the otherwise quiet space. No one ever said how quiet it was in space, but it was, like a vacuum sucking away any sound before it could be made or even dreamed of.

“David, could you make me some coffee? And set up Titanic for me, will you,” she called out.

David whirled to. “Of course. Shall I prepare some tissues too?”

She snorted. “I won't cry this time.”

“You say that every time,” he told her.

She scoffed. “Are you getting sassy with me?”

_Log 126_

_Compilation of data is halfway done. Planet and two suns have been completed and I will send the data in along with this message. I am still waiting to catch the full rotation of the two suns remaining. Swan, end._

_Log 356_

_Data retrieval is completed. Initiating part two of the mission: flying to the neighboring system. Swan, end._

Emma was truly excited for this part. Her first system was boring, mainly hands off work which had been because of the extreme heat affecting the singular planet. But the next system had planets she could actually land on and could go about mapping or collecting samples of.

The only issue would be with arriving there.

It would take, even with hyper drive activated, about 15 years for Emma to make it to the second system she'd been assigned. It would be a boring 15 years. Not that Emma wasn't already partially bored. Emma had read every single book on board her ship- a daunting collection of 500 hundred books ranging from romance, to physics, to how to make a wooden table. She had played on all of the gaming systems, besting all of the games she had there. She had played against her AI David in table ping pong. Which ended up not being any fun since he was only a robot and couldn't really play her.

She was bored.

Emma knew to expect boredom as part of the job but she hadn't expected it to set in this early. She wondered how her other classmates were doing. It was a shame that technology couldn't find a way for them to somehow communicate through all the miles of space. But it seemed Final Frontier was more focused on getting to the goal and not the cost of doing so.

“Alright David, let's shift into hyper drive and get our butts out of here,” Emma said, taking the captain's seat and pressing the sequence of buttons that would render this possible. As she took the wheel, feeling the engines thrum to life as they were filled with a special fuel that would enter hyper space for her, she couldn't help but hope something interesting would await her on the other end. Something that would make up for all these years of monotony.

With a giant snarl and a shake, the ship flung forward, Emma's stomach jolting up so badly due to the sudden terminal velocity that she felt her stomach move up and she almost lost her lunch. But it faded quickly as her body adjusted to the jump and the ship kept an even speed.

The ship would calculate the safest route in real time so she didn't have to worry about flying into planets or comets or anything of that sort. She could just sit back and relax.

* * *

“Happy birthday!” David's voice greeted her as soon as Emma woke up from her sleep. “It's your 43rd birthday! Which means we're almost to the new system. To celebrate both things, I made you a cake. It's in the kitchen.”

Emma sat up with a yawn and rubbing her eyes, slipped out of bed. She had gone through the motions of so many birthdays already alone that they lost meaning to her. But what did give her some joy this time, was that this birthday meant they were almost to her second system.

“Thanks, David, I'll be there shortly.” The little robot man on wheels that David sometimes used to bring her things with, wheeled away to give her time to get dressed.

Emma went to the bathroom to wash up, staring at her reflection. Due to cybernatic enhancements, she didn't look her age yet. Her face was still young, her eyes bright, and her hair sleek. And she was physically fit. She wondered when the enhancements would stop working and when the aging would show. Hopefully it wouldn't slow her down from her mission.

She goes into the dining room and finds that David has set the projector on so it looks like the room is filled with balloons and other decorations. The cake in the middle of the table is very much real and it's already lit for her. “Cake for breakfast?” she queries.

“I made you a meal in the kitchen. At least blow out the candles and make a wish before you have breakfast,” he told her.

She leaned in, looking at the twin bright flames. What could she wish for? Did it even really matter? There was no way of fulfilling that wish, since she wasn't on Earth anymore. She blew out the candles, deciding to not make a wish at all and heads to the kitchen to have what smells like scrambled eggs and toast. David plays the Happy Birthday song until she scowls at it, and the AI stops. In the kitchen, through the huge glass window, she sees something that almost makes her drop her plate. It's a planet in the trajectory of the ship.

When David had mentioned they would be close to the planet, he hadn't mentioned as in, today. “Holy shit, we're here!” she gasped out, eyes going wide. Hyper drive slowed down as the planet grew closer, the engines dying down with a whirl. Emma had to grab onto the counter as the ceasing momentum made her crash into the side of the cabinet. She ignored the jarring pain in her hip as she looked out. She could make out the third planet in the system. She had made sure to enter this system by the most viable planet. And now here it was, a second Earth staring back at her.

“Yes, I thought it would be a good birthday surprise,” David murmured from above.

“David, get everything ready. I'm suiting up and going down there,” she told him, rushing off to the annex of the ship where the doors to leave the ship were.

“But you haven't scanned the planet yet! We don't know what dangers there are.”

Emma grit her teeth and slowed down. He was right. She shouldn't act rash and ruin hundreds of years and millions of dollars because she was impatient. “Fine, set scans for possible threats in the area and a scan on the planet. And then, I'm going down. Tomorrow.”

Tomorrow sounded farther away than 15 years had, but if she could wait that long, she could wait just a bit longer.

* * *

Okay, so maybe this waiting things when the prize she wanted was right in front of her, was more difficult than she expected. She tried to distract herself, by eating cake, exercising, going over planet side protocol, and even trying to go to bed. But she couldn't. She'd run by the scans, waiting to see if they were done.

David kept chiding her for it. “If you keep acting like that, I'll shut them off.”

“Hey!” she declared angrily. “You can't do that.”

“Yes, I very much can,” he told her smugly. “I have an override feature that I can use if I think you're being unsafe, or acting erratically.”

Grumbling, she folded her arms across her chest and leaned back into her seat. “Fine,” she growled out and tried to be patient.

The scans finished in two days time, in which Emma had taken apart and put back together her gear, namely the weapons she would be bringing down with her. There was no telling what would wait for her down there. Better safe than sorry.

All her weapons were laser based, in this manner they would be able to cut anything apart, if bullets wouldn't work on hostile alien life forms. But when the scans finished, she couldn't care less about any dangers on the planet. The scan had told her that the planet had thick vegetation and was at the stage in it's evolution where it was crawling with bugs the size of cars. She didn't mind a few creepy crawlies. If they were this big, they'd be easier to avoid. And, she could collect data from them.

Suiting up, she put on a white suit with a helmet with orange stripes on it. This suit was meant to withstand anything. Cold, hot, or acidic environments. Even fire and water. And it had an oxygen tank that would last her for five hours. Which meant she wouldn't be able to explore for long. If she sent a craft down, she would be able to refuel her oxygen levels and continue exploring. But, until she had a better grasp of the planet, she didn't want to send the craft down because it could risk getting destroyed by some bugs. She would have to find a safe space in where to put it.

She got into the portal tube, the glass door closing the cylinder. “Alright, David, beam me down to these coordinates,” and she input them on the control panel inside. She was picking the place with the least vegetation possible so she wouldn't have to slash and hack too much at it.

“Gladly,” David told her, as he started up the machine. She could feel her atoms being slowly pulled apart and faded, ready to be transported into a beam of light to be sent down. “And good luck, Emma.”

“Thank you,” and then she was gone, reappearing on the planet for the first time ever. Her eyes opened wide as she took her surroundings in. Everything was so big around her, even the stalks of what looked like to be grass, swaying over her head. It was like mother nature on steroids. She could make out the tops of trees to her left that towered like skyscrapers above her. And the sounds of wind rushing through the air came through her ear piece.

Awe filled her. Awe and joy. Her long journey had paid off and she was about to reap it's benefits. Tears of wonder almost came to her eyes, and she shook her head to clear herself of those emotions. The hard work wasn't over yet. She activated the scanner she wore on her wrist like a watch. This scanner was to help determine the chemical composition of these new species of bugs and plants she'd came across and cross reference them with Earth's own.

Before she left her spot, she set down a launch pad, a single piece of circular metal on which she would stand on and be beamed right back up to her ship. Then, she went off, taking slow steps, and scanning everything and anything. She scanned the air, and found it was comprised of the same chemical makeup as that of Earth's. Except it has higher, dangerously higher, levels of carbon dioxide. That must mean that the plants here take in oxygen and give out carbon. Fascinating.

Progress is slow due to her scanning and cataloging everything. She has to crouch behind a bush and wait once or twice when she comes across a centipede slithering in search for prey. She scans it as she goes by and finds it's not an exact match for the centipede variation on her planet, but like a distant cousin. It still looks gross, in her opinion. Did bugs count as alien lifeforms? Emma wondered as she walked past a spider spinning up a fly into it's web. She slipped past it's beady eight eyed stare, keeping mind of where her pistol was the entire time.

She entered a more densely populated area, brushing aside some vines hanging down. She got closer to a tree that's slanted at a 45 degree angle, something brown and big protruding from it's side. At first, Emma thought it was some rock or something, but as she got closer, she realized it wasn't that. But something more, exciting.

It was what could only be a destroyed spaceship on the planet. It wasn't one of humanities kind. She didn't recognize it at all. It looked, dare she say, alien in nature. She almost mistook it for part of the planet if her wrist scanner hadn't informed her that the weird rock like shape had metal and electricity in it.

So, she decided it check it out, drawing out her laser pistol and taking slow, but cautious steps towards it. There didn't seem to be any surrounding threats but she would rather be safe than sorry. She got there, ripping off a couple of vines that were covering an opening big enough for her to go through. She stepped inside, two headlights on her helmet turning on in the dimmer setting.

Should she be in here? Should she take this back to her ship and examine it? Her body was tingling with delight. This was evidence! Evidence that other life forms existed. Or that they once had! She couldn't wait to report back to mission central. She might be the first human to make this discovery.

Trying to stifle a premature grin, she slowly stepped through, ears pricked for the slightest sound of anything sneaking up on her. The inside of this ship had pipes and walls with control panels on them. The ship looked off. Had it crashed here? Or had it been abandoned?

Her feet squelch on something wet. She looks down and finds it's something green, trailing from behind a corner. Instantly her hackles are raised. She's seen enough alien movies to know this might not end well. But, she's here on a mission. And she intends to carry it out.

Plus, she's really curious.

With careful and quiet steps she turns out the corner, gun in hand and freezes, forgetting how to breathe.

There, was an alien.

Unlike the bugs that Emma had seen on this planet.

It was unconscious, breathing shallowly, and it's hand was over it's abdomen, holding it because it was bleeding out green blood.

“Shit,” Emma breathed out. For years humans had suspected there was other life out there, and this, was proof. Proof it was true. And Emma was seeing it for the first time, with her own eyes. How many people could say they had the honor of that?

The only question was, what did she do now?

Tentatively, she bent down next to the prone figure, lifting up her wrist so she could scan them. The scan was quick, flashing an orange glow over them. Emma couldn't be sure if they were harmless, but given they were hurt, they wouldn't hurt her, for now. The scan came back with a reading that the being was plant based.

Like a living plant, given conscience, and the vague form of a human. And it was still alive. It's pulse was slow but it was there. Should Emma take it back to her ship and try to help it? There was huge risk there, but also huge reward. Emma might be the first person ever to have contact with an alien. Gently, she scooped up the being into her arms. They were heavy but not too heavy. Emma made sure not to jostle her steps too much as she went to bring them back to her ship and help them.

* * *

Now with the creature cleaned up and healed, Emma can get a better look at it. It seems female, so Emma decides she will define it as a 'her' for the time being. Her skin is a caramel tan with faint touches of green to the edges of it, translucent veins of white underneath acting as veins, but giving the impression of roots under skin. Her hair isn't smooth and fine, but individual- each strand thick like aloe vera leaves, shaped and pretending to act like hair. It even moves like hair, shifting when the head turns. And her ears are pointed with little fuzzy hairs on them like plants do, but almost invisible except to the most minute touch.

While the creature rested and healed, Emma went back down planet side to check out the ship wreckage for anything salvageable or for any clues about the alien she had found. Suffice to say, it's a treasure trove of information to be found there, none of which she can understand since she doesn't know the alien language or technology. Thus, she's going to take it back to her ship, piece by piece and look into it and then send data back to mission control.

The alien in her ship can answer the questions that Emma has, but something tells Emma they wouldn't be understanding each other any time soon.

* * *

The first thing to register is fright in the alien. Then shock. And then wonder. The alien is as intrigued about Emma as Emma is about it. She reaches out to touch Emma and Emma places her palm against the alien, the first contact she's had with another being in well over 15 years. Emma thinks she might cry, but she doesn't. Finally, she's not alone. And, she's just found evidence of life existing beyond what they know.

She's going to go down in the history books, she just knows it. Shame she won't be on Earth to see all the glory her discovery will bring her. The alien too is staring at Emma in wonder, tangling her fingers with Emma's, before dragging the hand closer and examining it within the hold of her own two. Her skin is soft to the touch, and cooler than Emma's own. The alien drops Emma's hand after finding it has the same format as her own- a palm, and five fingers, though the skin is a different color. The alien then moves a tentative hand to touch Emma's cheek. She hesitates before touching, as if afraid Emma might draw back. But Emma doesn't draw back, giving a soft smile and taking the alien's hand in her own to allow her to touch her cheek. The alien's eyes grow wider in wonder at the warm skin there, stroking the cheek before moving up to touch Emma's hair. Her lips make an astonished oo shape and Emma can't help but chuckle because she feels the same. The alien startles at the sound and draws away, which only makes Emma laugh harder.

“It's alright,” she tells her. “I won't hurt you. I'm here to help you.” She indicates to the bandaged wounds the medic machine fixed up for Emma as Emma simply watched. The alien looks down at the bandages and inspects them, finding them to hold sturdy.

She says something, looking back up at Emma. Emma doesn't understand, predictably.

The dialect sounds like French. It has a lot of hard vowels and repeating sounds. But none of the words are French. In fact, the words seem to almost as if they were mixed up and then said backwards. Communication will be an issue between them. Emma is glad she has a translator on board, but, it probably won't be at all effective at working this conundrum out. They might have to rely on gestures and pointing things out to understand each other. That is, if the alien wants to stay on this ship.

Emma decides to move the alien to a guest bedroom in the ship, with a tray of warm food set up for it. She hopes it can eat human food, else it might starve and it is in no shape to go back planetside to fetch it's ship. Not that it's ship will do much good- it is broken.

For now, Emma leaves it be, allowing David to offer it a tablet on which she can watch movies while she continues to rest and heal from her injuries. Through the camera feed for that room, Emma watches the alien interacting with it's environment with curiosity and takes studious notes on facial expressions, reactions, and any other actions that might help breach the language barrier between them.

The alien looks at the tablet like it's nothing new, using her finger to scroll on the entirely glass surface to pick out a movie. Huh, interesting. Does such technology already exist for her species? What if Emma gave her parts of the broken ship to examine or work on. Would the alien be able to fix up their own ship?

Emma taps a finger to her lips, facing a conundrum like never before. But, she's more than happy to solve it.

* * *

The alien doesn't seem in any rush to leave the ship. Emma wonders why, but until they can actually learn each other's language, she probably won't know at all. So, with her new companion to keep her company, Emma suddenly finds herself less lonely and less bored.

With her companion, time seems to fly by as the two of them get to know each other better. Emma finds out that the alien is not new to any of the technology that Emma has on her ship. And that she is very well mannered. She holds herself upright and cleans up any messes after herself.

She seems to like sunlight- or at least she often goes to the artificial lights that Emma has in her greenhouse and sits there, soaking up the rays while she sits in a meditative pose. She eats only meat, which, Emma supposes makes sense since she seems to be made of plant and eating a vegetable would feel much like eating herself. She is a quiet alien, respectful too of Emma's privacy. She enjoys looking at the picture books in the Emma's library or watching films with her. She marvels at the humans on screen and the visual effects even if she cannot understand anything.

It's baffling. From what Emma has seen of Earth's variations on aliens, it is that they are highly intelligent lifeforms, but with a thirst for destruction, especially of human life. Well, it's what all the movies show anyways. But this alien is not like that. She almost seems....a bit sad.

Emma has caught her more than once looking out the window wistfully and sighing and Emma wishes she could ask why, wishes she could soothe the ache, but she doesn't know how. Instead, when she sees the alien brooding like this, she goes and whisks her off for a movie, or a game that she has taught the alien how to play.

The first two years are shaky at first. They try to learn each other's language, and conversation is rough if it even goes anywhere. But gradually, they begin to pick up one or two words, eventually beginning to string together sentences. While they are still learning to communicate verbally, Emma studies the behaviors of her alien guest as she is sure the alien is studying her own.

Emma is happy to share as much of her culture as she can; she can't wait for the day to come until she can learn from her alien pal about hers. She makes daily logs on this experience, sending messages to mission control. Given how far away she is from them now, she knows her messages won't be received until months later- possibly even up to two years time-, but she keeps sending them so that they get them.

In the meantime, Emma hangs out with her alien friend, challenging her to some sports games that they don't follow the rules by. She goes down to the planet and continues her research there, finding a good location to send her craft, meaning she is able to spend hours on that humid landscape. And there is so much to find and record. She's careful to stay out of the way of bugs, because she does not want to become some unwilling snack. And all the while, her alien pal stays on the ship and chills there, sometimes even doing the chores such as watering Emma's on board plants or cleaning up Emma's clothes.

It takes them five years to finally have a conversation where they understand everything. It's simple. And it's short. But it happens, almost quite unexpectedly, and Emma can't stop beaming. Not only has she found an alien, but she's also learned it's language.

“This is amazing!” she cries out once they finish the simple exchange and she's laughing and almost close to crying. She doesn't know about her classmates, but she thinks she's the only one to have met an alien and taken the time to understand them.

“My name is Erregian.” Erregian says, amused by Emma's reaction.

It almost sounds like Regina in Emma's language, so that's what she calls her. “Regina.”

“Close enough,” Regina shrugs, not offended in the least. She speaks English with a weird stilted accent. Like she can't open her mouth wide enough to let the words out.

“I have so many questions to ask you!” Emma gushes as they sit cross legged in front of each other. “I am sure you have many questions about me too.”

Regina nods her head. “Yes, I do indeed. Would you like to go first?”

Emma chuckles. “I don't even know where to start. Do you know how hard it was not speaking to you, or asking you about yourself for five years?”

“I can imagine. I felt much the same way. And I must say thank you for allowing me to stay here. I feel very safe.”

“Oh, no problem. I couldn't let you remain hurt.” Emma responds and then a worrisome thought crosses her head. “Do you...want to leave?”

Regina shakes her head right away. “No. I don't feel any need to.”

Emma's shoulder's sag with relief. “Oh, thank goodness. I would be so upset.”

“I would think my staying here for five years would be indicator of that enough,” she says with a quirked smile and okay, so it turns out Regina is kinda sarcastic and sassy and Emma can live with that.

She's craved social interaction with another being for so long that she thinks she would forgive Regina for even cutting off her limb so long as she could continue talking with her.

Now with their speech barrier out of the way, they spend so much time talking and getting to know each other. And it's like they can't seem to shut up. Every moment they get, they're talking, building up their understanding and vocabulary.

“What do you call yourself? Your species, I mean,” Emma asks.

“We call ourselves the Reoulit Dorimum,” Regina answered, making Emma frown.

“I don't know what that translates to,” she scratches her head. Her command of Regina's language is not good enough to understand everything yet.

“I believe, from what I have studied of your flora, it translates to Lycoris Radiata. It roughly means those of 'flower' and those associated with 'death',” Regina stated, though she seemed a bit ashamed to mention this. “We are....proud of this dark name, given to us by those who hate my kind.”

Emma pinches a brow, needing a moment to let this all sink in. “There are other alien species? And wait, they hate _your_ kind?”

“The system I hail from has many upon many species. Even the system outside of mine, is under the domain of mine. And yes, we are not very well liked. This is because we as a species are very intelligent, strong, and capable of great engineering feats.”

“But....flower of death?” Emma asked, feeling like there was something Regina wasn't telling her.

Regina shrugged, not comfortable in continuing this. “A cruel name. What of your species?”

Emma didn't want to change the topic; she wanted to get to the bottom of this. But she knew to press Regina would give her no results and she didn't want to insult her alien friend. She would get the answer out one way or another eventually. “We're called humankind, because we wish to be 'kind' but we're really not all that kind. We're selfish and rude for the most part though there are good people around. Those who aren't good we call 'dicks'.”

“Dicks?” Regina questioned.

“Uh, you know, a male reproductive organ.” Emma gestured vaguely to her crotch. “It's like a....um, rod?” she shrugged, not sure how to describe this without pictures; not sure she did want to describe this.

“I do not think our species reproductive organs are the same,” Regina admitted. “We use pollen, and-”

“Alright, I don't think I want to talk about that just yet,” Emma chuckled, waving it off because she did not need a sex talk from an alien right now.

“If you so say, but really it's not taboo.”

“What do your species like to do for fun?” Emma asked. There was so much she needed to know about Regina's species and she was a bit overwhelmed on where to even start.

“Well, same thing as you do. Watch movies with friends and family. Eat meals together. Do hobbies such as painting, creating- we value intellectual pursuits. But we do also value military ones too. We put a lot of focus on bettering ourselves.”

“Kinda seems like human kind. Any traditions? Like holidays you celebrate?”

“There is the holiday to celebrate our leader, the Eternal Queen of Froot,” Regina stated. “We throw a banquet and dance and celebrate her for hours.” Regina says this with an amount of distaste and it has Emma wondering why. Is something wrong? Does Regina not approve of this tradition? More to dig into later, but once they are more open and closer to each other.

Suddenly Regina's stomach rumbles loudly, cutting them off. Emma laughs while Regina flushes in embarrassment over this, her cheeks turning a deeper green. She puts a hand over her stomach as if that could get it to quiet down. “It seems you are hungry. Let's continue this conversation over a meal,” Emma said, getting up and helping Regina to her feet too. “By the way, is the food to your liking here? I wasn't able to really gauge if you liked it.”

“It is similar to what we eat on my home planet,” Regina admitted. “Though it has significantly more spices and flavors than I am used to.”

“David, prepare us the usual meal,” Emma calls out to the AI system.

“Understood,” he intones and by the time they make it down to the dining room, their meals are ready and the table set. They sit down to eat, Emma eagerly digging into her salad. She's just speared a tomato onto her plate when Regina speaks up.

“I can't believe I had to watch you eat my friends all these years,” Regina and Emma nearly chokes on it in her effort to spit it out. “Oh my go- I'm sorry. I knew you didn't eat them but I didn't think my eating them would offend you-”

“It's fine,” Regina chuckles and it sounds adorable. “I was only teasing you. I simply cannot digest plant based matter. It does not bother me to see you do so, and enjoy it.”

“Oh, _oh,_ ” Emma relaxes, her eyes going back to normal. So not only is Regina sassy and sarcastic, but also a bit of a teaser.

* * *

Regina even joins Emma on her planet side exploration. Except Regina doesn't need a suit really, since she's able to breathe in a carbon based environment. “My species' body's adapt easily. Which makes us so great for space travel.”

“Do your kind travel a lot?” Emma asks as they are uprooting some bushes with colorful berries on them for analysis in the lab.

“We do. But mainly within our own system. We govern over all the planets there in a dictatorship and have other species submit to us because we are the superior life forms there. Recently, we've been looking to expand outwards. It's all terrible,” she said, features growing sad. “Which is why I ran away. I don't want to be part of something like that.”

“Oh, that doesn't sound good,” Emma said, thinking on her own planet Earth. Would they come after it? But no, Regina's home planet must be too far for her species to know about Emma's.

“It's not,” Regina sighs out. “I tried to oppose them, but...” she shakes her head. “It's not easy to do it on my own.”

“You don't have a revolution to fight against the government?” Emma asks. “It's what my kind does when they don't like how things are being run.”

“But my kind are happy being at the top of the food chain. They see nothing wrong with it,” she said with a shrug. “And my kind isn't....so compassionate. Those who are, who show any inch of kindness towards those they shouldn't are killed. I would have been too, but I was sparred.”

“Shit, that's rough,” Emma winced. “It's good you ran away then.”

“Yes, but I have no home world,” she told Emma, wistfully looking up at the night sky as if she could spot her world there.

“I don't have one either anymore,” Emma answered, feeling that same sadness coursing through her veins. “I can't ever go back there. So why don't we make this ship our new home?”

Regina looked over at her, surprised by her offer. “Really? You wouldn't mind me staying with you for longer?”

“Well, I let you free load off of me for several years,” she pointed out.

Regina smiled, and it was a small hopeful thing. She reached her hand out to the sky, as if embracing it. “Living among the stars. I like that.”

* * *

And so the two of them do live among the stars.

They've gotten so used to being together that Emma cannot fathom how she had even functioned without Regina here before. It feels like they've known each other for a long time. Emma is comfortable with Regina in ways she was not with her own species and it's ridiculous but it's not at the same time. She and Regina have just been able to connect like they were always destined to meet. And maybe they were. Maybe it was Emma's destiny to hate Earth, to go to space, and to meet Regina like this.

She can't speak for Regina's feelings, but she hopes Regina enjoys spending time with her too.

Watching movies is especially fun with Regina because she often questions pop culture references that are there, and she laughs at things that aren't funny but she finds are. And during those moments, sitting in the dark of the room, legs tangled together, they seem even closer than before. Emma even runs her hands through Regina's hair, fascinated by it's composition.

“Can you feel things through your hair?” Emma asks as the movie plays in the background.

“I can,” Regina answers, snuggling deeper against Emma's shoulder.

“So would it hurt if you cut your hair?” Emma has noticed that Regina's hair will get long and then end up back in her standard short bob. How does that happen?

“I shed it more than cut it. My hair grows naturally and I can let it keep growing. But if I want a shorter cut, I just send out a chemical signal signifying this and my hair gets shorter by falling off.”

“That's kind of cool,” Emma admits, because she could have saved so much money on haircuts as a child if she could do this.

“What of your hair?” Regina asked.

“We cannot feel pain through our hair, unless we tug at the roots. But our hair, though thinner in comparison, can actually lift heavy weights. It's elastic and capable of being used to even pull cars. There have been a couple of famous humans who did this.”

“Oh wow,” Regina blinks, shocked. “What else can humans do?”

“There are humans capable of super human actions, but it's rare and probably pales in comparison to what Lycoris Radiata can do,” Emma hummed.

“Have more faith in your species,” Regina said. “I am sure there are those wonderful exceptions.”

“Honestly, your species sounds better. I wish I could just cut my hair with my mind.”

Regina laughed. “We can also make it flower too if we so wish.”

“Flowers? You can grow flowers and you've been holding out on me this whole time?” Emma exclaimed. “I want to see.”

Regina pulled away so she could sit up. Then, with a lot of intense concentration on her face, flowers buds popped out of her hair and began to blossom into a dizzying array of pinks, whites and purples. Soon her whole head was covered in a carpet of them.

“Wow. I don't know what to say except that it looks beautiful,” Emma breathed. “You're amazing.”

“Thank you,” Regina murmured, a deep green blush on her cheeks.

“Can you do different flower types too?”

“I can. Would you like to see?”

And they spent the rest of that movie, watching Regina change her hair instead.

* * *

Eventually, Emma has to move onto another planet. Emma was unable to record everything she wanted of the first planet she had been on, but there was no feasible way for her to do it. Which was why she knew the Final Frontier program would have to send a whole team out to get that done, years from now. And by the time they came, everything might have changed again.

But, she cannot do anything to change this.

The second planet is rockier in environment and atmosphere. The critters here are smaller, but no less to be made cautious of. Regina too does not need an exo-suit here and she casually goes on a stroll like she was walking on a beach, hands in her pockets. Meanwhile, Emma is huffing and puffing in the suit behind her. The atmosphere is denser here and it weighs on her even with the suit on. She will not be able to spend much time here.

“I really envy you right now,” Emma told Regina. “How is it possible to so easily adapt to any environment?”

Regina shrugs. “I don't know either. My people claim it was god's gift to us, to make us special and to mark us out as the natural leaders and curators of the universe. That if we were not meant for such great things we would not be able to do this. Scientists, have determined it's because our organisms cells can change and shift our dna and molecular structure to adjust us comfortably.” Regina looks at the back of her own hand, contemplative. “I am sure there are some environments were we cannot survive either.”

“Like the sun,” Emma guessed. “Or more precisely the surface of a star.”

“Yes,” Regina agreed before stopping in front of a giant chasm in the earth. She looked down and saw a river of lava flowing down below. Emma caught up to her, hands on knees. She might have to retire to her ship despite only being planetside for thirty minutes.

“Would you like to head back?” Regina questioned as a swarm of rock lizards, similar to an Earth lizard with the exception of it being covered in a crusty skin of rock and packed dirt, skittered past. As if they were running from something.

“Sure. Let me just catch my breath,” Emma said. Regina patiently waited for her, observing the reddish sky. The atmosphere here was also filled with heavy metals that made the air toxic. It would not do well for her to stay here for long either or else she might have to filter out the blood in her veins from the metal particles she had inhaled.

They begin the slow walk back when Regina's head jerks to the side. Emma's does a second later too, when her scanners pick up on something big approaching. “What the hell-” and then she sees it.

Roughly the size of a small car, a scaled lizard is approaching them. It's tongue flicks out of it's mouth, rattling. Either in warning or in attack, Emma doesn't decide to stick around. The smaller lizards must have been running from this one to avoid being this one's meal, and Emma thinks they had the right idea.

“Let's go,” Emma tells Regina as they rush ahead to avoid it's oncoming path. But it's set it's eyes on them as it's next meal and skitters closer to them. Emma is too slow in her suit and in this atmosphere. She might have to fight it off if she wants to get on the ship.

She reaches for her laser gun but even her fingers seem to work too slowly and she fumbles with it as the lizard rushes at her. She feels a hand push her aside, grasping the gun in her clumsy hand. “Regina-!” Emma cries out as she goes down hard to the ground, hard enough to knock the air out of her lungs. Regina has jumped in front of her, raising an arm up to brace for the attack. The lizard sinks it's serrated teeth into her flesh and she grunts out in pain but makes no other noise. She uses the laser gun and blasts the beast three times, right in it's chest, opening holes. It screeches in pain and jerks back with a loud ripping sound.

Emma would have screamed if she could, her lungs still not full with enough air to do so. But as it is she silently cries out as she watches Regina's arm get ripped right off as the beast falls down and lies still. Green blood sprays through the air, coating the front of Regina's shirt and her face. She barely takes a moment to register this, instead turning to help Emma up to her feet with her one good arm.

“Regina- Regina fuck,” Emma curses under her breath. “We need to get you back to the ship and fast.” She takes the gun from Regina and grabs her to help her stay steady. Pain glazes her eyes over but the alien is tough. She makes no sound to indicate the pain she is currently in. Emma's mind is racing. They have to get this fixed and now.

They get back on the ship in what feels like too long. Regina stays silent next to her.

“Why would you do that?!” Emma berates Regina as they burst into the ship to the medic bay. Emma has haphazardly thrown her suit off in an effort to be faster, to run up and get the machine ready for healing. Regina walks more slowly behind her, cradling the stump of her shoulder. While Emma is panic and fluster, she is calm and almost faintly amused.

“Emma, you need to relax. I am fine,” Regina confirms.

Emma looks at her as if she is insane. “Fine? Fine! You have a stump for an arm! We need to stop the bleeding and get you a new arm- and this is all my fault!”

“Emma, breathe,” Regina insists more firmly this time.

Emma pauses and in this time notes how calm Regina is. “Why are you not freaking out about this?”

“Because this is nothing. I can heal myself from this,” Regina offers with a shrug. “My body can regenerate lost limbs, ruined organs, or burnt skin. Even my whole form, though it is rare to have that happen. So, relax, Emma. This is nothing for me to deal with.”

Emma sputters a bit more in indignation before she eventually relents, her shoulders slumping. “If you say so...” she trails off uncertainly. “Don't you want me to maybe bandage it or deal with the blood loss?” but even as she says this she notes that the bleeding has stopped.

“I'd clean it yes, but other help won't be needed,” she told Emma, going to fetch some antiseptic from the medicinal cabinets.

Emma puts her hands on her hips. “You know, you really are marvelous as a species,” she says in plain awe. She's glad Regina will be fine, because Emma certainly had not been when she'd seen all that happen. She had been worried for the worst.

Regina offers a sad smile. “If you say so,” but does not comment further on it.

* * *

Indeed, Regina's arm does grow back. And it's fascinating to see it do so. It's close to how a plant sprouts a blossom and from that a flower arises. Except there's no flower here, but an arm. A giant purple plant takes the shape of where Regina's arm should be, in a manner of a month. Emma takes down notes on this because she is here to be a researcher after all, and she does enjoy spending time with Regina even if it is mundane.

“Does any of this hurt?” she asks, when the petals part one day and reveal a pale green arm underneath, soft with baby plant fuzz.

“It itches,” Regina admits, fingers of her good arm curling up to refrain from scratching.

“Have you done this before?” Emma is also tempted to touch the new arm but doesn't, figuring it wouldn't be scientific to do so.

“Yes, many times by now. Though not often so violently,” Regina says and Emma feels guilty.

“I'm sorry, truly. For what happened.”

Regina tips her head as if not understanding where Emma is coming from. “Why would you be sorry?”

“Because I was too slow and you had to get in the way to save me. If you hadn't you wouldn't need to go through this,” Emma said, unable to meet Regina's eyes. Regina lifted up Emma's chin with a delicate finger. “Emma, do not feel badly. I wanted to do that for you. For me this is a trifle, but if you had gotten hurt it would be have been worse for you.”

“Still, thanks. Again. I know I say it so often but I really appreciate you doing that for me,” Emma admitted, missing the feel of Regina's touch on her. The green alien's eyes sparkled with something Emma could not read as they stared into each other's eyes under the fluorescent lights of the ship.

“Are all of you humans so empathetic?” Regina questioned.

“Well, we all try to be, certainly,” Emma said as honestly as she could.

“Your gratitude and guilt are so different from what I am used to. The people of my world are cruel and lead by rational thought. They would not be so kind as to thank me for what I had done. I often wondered if there was a kinder soul like me out there, and I am glad to have met her in you, Em-ma.”

Emma smiled at this, the way Regina pronounced her name always sending such a thrill through her because it sounded so different, so much more special coming from her. “I'm glad you don't have to be among those assholes again.”

Regina smiled widely too. “Me too. Now, would you like to go watch a film with me?”

“Are you asking me on a movie date?” Emma asked, wagging her brows up and down playfully. She didn't mean to say that but it had come out of her. And in such a teasing manner too, one she usually reserved for flirting. Would Regina notice and get offended? Emma was gearing up to apologize for being so forward when Regina spoke.

“Certainly,” Regina agreed without question.

* * *

Emma is looking for Regina, needing to ask her on her opinion of some puzzling results they have garnered from the topsoil. Some of these combinations of compounds make no sense to Emma. Regardless of all her training, it could not account for everything. Regina has substantially more knowledge on such things, privy to an education that was aware and had access to other planets and their ecosystems earlier on. Emma has the data pad in hand, humming under her breath merrily as her feet carry her to the room that Regina is most at home in: the one with all of the oxygen giving plants.

The door whooshes open and Emma pauses in the doorway, something striking at her heart at the scene she sees. Regina stands by some plants, her arms now back to normal, and pouring soil into their pots. Regina is with the plants, tending to their soil, making sure that they are getting the care and nutrition they need. There's a peaceful look on her face, which makes her just look so beautiful. So otherworldly. A piece of her hair falls forward and Emma wants to tuck it behind her ear. It's only the distance between them that prevents her from doing this. Instead, she remains in the doorway not wanting to interrupt Regina as she hums a melody under her breath and attends to her work.

As Emma watches Regina working on the garden, she feels something inside her chest tighten and she draws in a silent shaking breath. Oh, she knows this feeling. It's affection. She's falling for Regina.

Her stomach churns.

Oh shit.

She hadn't meant to.

When had it even happened? What should Emma do next about it?

She didn't even know if Regina was attracted to humans. Or to women.

Emma bit her lower lip, retreating from the room. It had all just happened so subtly. Shit, what did she do now? Did she dare try anything? Or should she just ignore her feelings?

She may be in space to discover new worlds, but suddenly it feels like the most challenging thing is how to deal with her new found feelings.

* * *

Emma is awkward around Regina ever since she discovered her feelings for her. And like a plant, they only seem to grow more and more. Blossoming as each interaction with Regina waters the affection, making it stronger. Emma needs to avoid Regina. Needs to avoid causing any issues between them. She doesn't want her feelings to ruin their friendship. It will hurt her to stay away, and the first couple of days of forced separation are agony on her especially because she is so used to Regina just being around her as they do everything, if not together, then at least in each others presence.

But it seems that her avoiding Regina, and her feelings for her, is making things worse.

Regina notices the sudden distance between them, and rather than let it be, she questions it.

“Why are you avoiding me, Em-ma?” Regina questions, looking incredibly worried. “Have I done something wrong?”

Oh no, Emma had been hoping this wouldn't happen. But how could she explain this without telling the truth of the matter?

“I'm not avoiding you,” was the first thing out of her mouth.

“Yes, you are. Don't try to lie to me,” Regina said, with an angry bite to her words. She folded her arms across her chest. “What did I do?”

Emma sighed out, setting her coffee aside. This would not be an easy conversation to have. “Look, it really isn't you, Regina. I'm just in a....bad mood and I want some space to get my thoughts in order.”

Regina sits down at the kitchen table, not keen on leaving until she got to the root of this. “And what put you in this bad mood? Maybe I can help.”

“Regina....it's fine, really. I just need some space,” Emma grimaced, squirming in her seat.

“Em-ma, we're in space already how much more must you need? And you not wanting my help just indicates to me that I am in fact the root of your recent mood. So, tell me what is wrong, or so help me I will hound you down and wear you down until you tell me. I can be very persuasive,” Regina said and Emma slumped into her seat with a groan. She really did not want to do this. But maybe as was with a band aid, it would be better to just rip it off in one go rather than keep extending the pain.

She licked her lips, trying to gather her thoughts, her gaze focused on the brown sludge of her drink. “Um....well....recently,” she cleared her throat, feeling her cheeks heat up. She could feel Regina's direct gaze on her and it was unnerving her.

“Yes?” Regina encouraged, leaning in closer.

“This isn't any of your fault by the way. It really is all my fault. But I kind of....like you,” Emma breathed out near the end. She waited for Regina's reaction.

“Like me? Well, isn't that a good thing? It's why we get along so well,” Regina said and bless her for being so thick, but it was not something Emma needed right now.

“Romantically,” she got out, flushing even more.

“Oh. Oh!” Regina made a noise of enlightenment. “What does such a thing entail in your species.”

“You know, kissing, spending time together, getting to touch each other intimately...” Emma trailed off before deciding, why was she, an adult, freaking out over this so much? She decided to lift her gaze and saw that Regina had a faint green tint to her cheeks but she looked intrigued by all of this and not disgusted or revolted.

“And how do you feel about me?” Regina asked.

“I care about you. A lot. I would punch people in the face for you. I don't want any harm to come to you. And I think about you a lot. A lot a lot. About what you might like to do for breakfast, about what we should talk about, about getting to know you better. I didn't realize this earlier because I'd been alone for so long and I just thought I was thinking so much about you because I was excited not to be alone. But it turns out I've liked you romantically for a long time now.”

“How?”

Emma offered a shrug. “There's no defining moment when it started. It could have been as soon as we met or as recent as a month ago. But I finally realized it when I saw your smiling face as you were watering the plants and I just thought, wow, she's so pretty,” Emma concluded.

Emma still couldn't fully gauge Regina's reaction to all this so when the alien opened her mouth to speak, Emma put a hand up. “You don't have to say anything to this. I never meant to tell you and I was avoiding you so things wouldn't get awkward between us. But I would like us to be friends still. I wouldn't like my feelings to get in the way. And you don't have to answer me right now-”

Regina gave a little soft laugh. “Em-ma, I think I've felt the same way about you for a while now.”

Emma stutters to a stop. “You what?” her jaw drops open. She never expected this to happen. “Are you for real right now?”

“I didn't have the words to explain it, and I wasn't sure at first. Like you, I too have been alone for some time. But everything you've described is how I think of you. Though....this human thing called kissing...I don't believe it exists in my culture.”

“No way,” Emma murmurs about this revelation. She never expected Regina to feel the same way about her. She's breaks out into a super huge grin. “And we are so going to have work on kissing then. It's a lot of fun. I can't believe you don't do that. What do you do to show affection?”

“We aren't outwardly affectionate,” Regina admitted. “But I don't mind. I think I would greatly like to do that with you.”

Emma jolts out of her seat, holding her hand out. “Come with me, then,” and Regina takes her hand. They walk over to the room below the control center that has a 360 view of space around them. Emma flicks a switch and the metal sheets around the windows rise up, revealing inky black pierced through with spots of light. It's beautiful, and wondrous but it all does pale in comparison to what Emma feels about Regina. She guides Regina into the center of the room.

“I've thought about this for a while,” Emma admits, because she has dreamed of kissing Regina and of doing more with her too. “About kissing you in a romantic location. And this is as romantic as I can offer right now.”

“It does have an amazing view,” Regina says, though her eyes trail away from the window to Emma's face.

“May I....kiss you?” Emma asks shyly.

Regina squeezes Emma's hand. “Yes, I would like that.”

Their first kiss is clumsy. Emma draws Regina's hand into her own, fingers twining together as they float effortlessly in a room with a 360 view of space. It's a romantic enough setting and Regina looks to Emma for guidance, allowing the blonde to cup her cheek with her other hand and draw their faces together.

It's a chaste kiss, their noses bumping into each other before their mouths join. Regina's lips taste like sweet honey and they spin slowly through the air, their bodies pressed against each other.

But it makes Emma feel more alive than anything else under the sun. Emma pulls back; assesses Regina's reaction to this. The woman seems pleasantly surprised. “That felt nice.”

“And it can get a whole lot nicer,” Emma adds on, closing the distance between them once more as this time she cups Regina's cheeks in her own and tilts her head up slowly so she can kiss her harder this time. Their eyes slip closed and they stay there, for a long time.

* * *

Ever since they've first kissed, things have changed between them. For one, Emma finds out Regina really, really likes kissing her. She takes every chance she can to do so. Maybe it's the thrill of trying out something new, maybe it's because Regina is trying to understand how humans show their love to each other, but she is the one who initiates it nearly each time.

It's endearing.

And does not at all bother Emma.

The kisses find themselves growing bolder. Regina pressing Emma into the kitchen counter and kissing the taste of coffee out of her mouth. Kissing her before they part ways to their own bedrooms. Kissing her when they see each other in the mornings. Kissing on the cheek, on the forehead, on the hand. Even on the shoulder. Regina's lips are incessant and Emma feels like she's melting apart.

Regina's tongue swipes into Emma's mouth, tangling with her own tongue and drawing a rough groan from Emma as the blonde tries and fails not to squirm in her seat. Regina is straddling her hips and pressing her chest right into Emma's, making it so hard for the blonde to focus on typing out her notes.

Their heads slant, Regina cupping Emma's with adoration. Their breathing is noisy, their bodies heated. Emma thinks she might explode.

“We should stop,” Emma tells her, panting from effort.

“Why?” Regina asks, trying to chase Emma's lips with her own even as the blond cranes her head away.

“Because I will want to do more with you if you don't stop. And I don't think either of us are ready for that.”

Regina chuckles, and it's something low that sends Emma's guts twisting. “Em-ma, I am no delicate flower. I can handle myself. Just show me what you do and I shall do it.” She nips below Emma's jaw for good measure and Emma's eyes flutter shut at the sensation.

“I want you to enjoy this too. But I don't know how you-”

“Emma, I am confident our anatomies are not that different from each other,” Regina stated, pulling away so she could look right into Emma's eyes. Her own were filled with a hunger that only called to the hunger inside Emma. “And even if they were, my species is adaptive. I could suit myself to your needs.”

The implications of that is not lost on Emma. It makes her burn all the hotter, like a star that has newly been formed.

“If you are comfortable with it, then we can do it,” Emma said gallantly.

Regina smirked and kissed the tip of Emma's nose.

Emma is filled with nerves, feeling very much like a young teenager about to embark on their first sexual act ever. But she can't help it. Regina makes her feel this way. They undress each other to soft piano music that David plays for them. Their fingers linger on soft flesh, mouths pressing heated kisses to skin. They make their way to the bed, Regina pushing Emma down as she gets on top. Emma had not expected this, but she finds she doesn't mind Regina in such a position. She has a better view of her beautiful body.

“So pretty,” Emma murmurs reverently as Regina's mouth descends, down from her neck, to her collarbone, to the valley of her breasts, to abs of her stomach, and then between her thighs where she needs her most.

Release happens all too soon for Emma as she gasps and shudders, but it's not over yet. Emma pulls Regina's head up and kisses Regina hard, before she flips their positions with ease and takes her time exploring Regina's body and her needs.

“Tease,” Regina breathes when Emma's lips suck under her jaw, making a small whimper come from her lips.

“Is that a request?” Emma quips back and receives an unamused glare that has her huffing with laughter before she resumes her ministrations. It doesn't take long before she understands Regina's body and makes it undo under her. It leaves her breathless, her floral scent stronger than before.

Emma grins down at her, tenderly. “So, was it any good?”

“I....It was more than good,” Regina says, blinking up at Emma. “Now, let me show you how my people show our affection in bed,” and she gave Emma a sordid kiss that quickly turned into something more.

They kept busy all night long, tiring out in the early hours of the morning.

And if their first kiss was magical, pure poetry in the simplest form, then the first time they make love is even more amazing. If perfection exists, then that is what it is. And Emma would gladly give up all the exploration of the stars if she could just remain like this in Regina's arms, content and feeling safe.

Closing her eyes she breathes in Regina's soft scent and snuggles deeper.

The morning after Emma goes to check up on her plants and finds that the whole room looks like green exploded all over it. There's vines hanging from the ceilings, roots covering the walls.

“Uh, Regina, what happened? Did you feed the plants steroids?” she asks, mug of coffee hanging loosely from her hand.

Regina appears behind her, wearing one of Emma's shirts and nothing else. “Oh, this happens sometimes. If I'm around plants my powers can go haywire if I am....otherwise distracted.”

“Nice to know.”

* * *

They slip into a comfortable relationship with such ease that Emma almost feels like they were made to be in one. Like they were somehow destined to meet like this and be together. It's not something she tells Regina, however, afraid that that depth of her feelings might scare her off.

But now that they are closer, Emma wants to visit Regina's homeworld. Wants to see it with her own eyes. She feels comfortable enough to ask over breakfast. “Can we go visit the place?”

“No!” such a visceral reaction comes from Regina that it scares off Emma from asking again for another month. But at the core of this, she is an explorer. Her job is to go see different worlds. This would be a break through, finding a whole other society!

“Look, if you don't want to go, you don't have to. I know you are in trouble. But I need to go. It's my job to do something like this, so my people can become educated.”

Regina shook her head vehemently. “Emma, please. You don't want to do that. They'll kill you. And I care too much about you to let you get killed,” Regina took one of Emma's hands in her own and squeezed tightly.

Emma let out a heavy sigh. “I know....but Regina this is my job. To explore. To carve a path out for other humans to follow. If I go to your planet I can gain so much information. I can make a difference.”

Regina shook her head. “There is no way for us to even approach my planet. We will be shot down on sight. My people are not like me. They will see you and they will either kill you or enslave you. I don't want that to happen to you. Why can't you understand this? That there is no way of reaching my world?”

Emma slipped her hand out from the grasp of Regina. She knew what Regina spoke of was a very present risk. But she could not just give up. Maybe not today, but someday, she would manage to visit Regina's home world. She thinned her lips and Regina knew what that look on her face meant.

“Don't even think about it Emma,” Regina warned. “I am not joking. I will be unable to do anything to save you if this happens.”

“Regina....” Emma shook her head. Perhaps they would never see eye to eye on this. “Let's just drop the topic for now.”

Regina did not look happy at the conclusion of this but she did as Emma asked.

As it would turn out, Emma would get her wish to meet Regina's people sooner than she expected.

* * *

An alarm blared through the ship, jerking Emma right out of bed. She tripped over her sheets, nearly face planting into the floor. Regina too sat up wide awake from where she had been cuddled up to Emma's side. “What is going on?” she asked, frightened.

Emma was already hastily grabbing clothing, slipping her suit on.

“Projectile heading towards us,” David intoned. “Captain needed at the pilot's seat.”

“I don't know,” Emma gasped out, putting her hair into a messy ponytail. “This has never happened before.” She rushed out of the room, last catching a glimpse of Regina standing up to get her own clothing.

Emma gets to the pilot's seat and sits down. What she sees outside her window, makes her jaw drop open. It's a ship. A ship coming towards her. Quickly she pushes some buttons and slows down her own ships thrusters as she goes into manual mode. Her ship pulls to a stop, and her sensors indicate the ship in front of her has done the same. They stand still in space, a good several kilometers apart.

What is going on? What do they want? How did they find Emma's ship?

The doors leading into the cockpit slid open with a whoosh and Regina strides in, dressed. Her hand clutches the back of Emma's seat hard when she sees what's outside. She goes pale green. “Oh no. they found me.”

“Found you-” Emma turns her head to Regina, comprehending several things at once. That is a ship of her people. But what are they doing here? “Shit, what are we going to do? How do they even know you're on here?”

“The queen sent people looking for me. She would not be so kind as to let me simply go from her queendom. They must have tracked down my crashed ship and it lead them to this system. Since they couldn't find me there, they must have searched for anything ship like. Since your ship is the only ship here, they figure I must be on it.”

Emma swallowed heavily, her hands sweating on the steering wheel. “Do you think I can talk it out-”

“No,” Regina shook her head. “It's best we don't engage. We need to run, Emma. Turn this ship around and go as fast as you can.” Regina looked so scared. Her breathing was shallow and she was almost shaking. Emma swallowed hard again, not sure what to do. On one hand, it was her duty to engage with aliens. But on the other hand, Regina's reaction indicated this would not be a peaceful encounter.

“Okay,” Emma breathed out, lifting her finger to do as Regina asked. She would trust her alien girlfriend on this issue. But before she could press it, an escape route formulating in her mind, the comm crackled to life, startling both of them. It was a message from the alien ship.

“Regina,” it said, the voice deep on the other end. “You need to come with us. We don't know how you managed to procure such alien technology, but we know you are on it. Do not be foolish and run. You know you cannot escape your destiny.”

Regina let out a shaky breath and Emma felt anger coil inside her chest. A protective anger. How dare anyone try to hurt Regina?

“Fuck off!” Emma told them rudely in her language, and then turned the boosters on. The ship roared to life and Emma spun the wheel hard to the left, so sharply that Regina nearly fell if she had not been holding onto the chair. The ship zipped off, away from the enemy ship.

“You won't get away that easily-” Emma turned the comm off, not caring to listen anymore to them. “Strap in,” she told Regina. “I might have to shake them off.” Regina hurried over to the other seat, putting the seatbelt on as the scanners on the back of the ship, indicated the larger one was following them.

Shit. Emma had not trained for this. For evading an enemy ship.

“They're firing at us, Emma,” David said, a split second before it registered on the scans. Emma turned the ship right to avoid this, one of the wings getting nicked.

“Shit, fuck,” she cursed. “I know this David. Be more fucking useful!” she exclaimed angrily.

“I'll activate the lasers in the back,” he told her.

“Yea, you do that,” she told him.

“Emma, I can help you,” Regina offered, “I've flown ships before too.”

“Will you man the lasers?” Emma asked, grunting with effort as she swerved the ship to the left. Her hands were sweaty on the steering wheel and she could feel her heart pounding even in her stomach. Regina nodded her head and got out of her seat, moving to the one in the side that was responsible solely for the weaponized systems. Technically David could handle the system on autopilot but she would let Regina do it.

Regina seats herself back down and begins to press buttons accordingly.

“Hold the ship steady, will you?” she shouts out.

“I fucking would if I weren't being chased or shot at!” Emma shoots back.

Regina grimaces and tries her best to steadily aim at the ship chasing them. “Emma, I don't know how to tell you this, but your ships weapons are shit! I'm hitting them but there's little to no damage being sustained.”

“Then use the missiles.”

“I don't think-” they both cut themselves off as the ship is hit. The whole frame of it shudders and sends the vehicle careening out of control. Red lights flash in error. “We've been hit,” David informs unhelpfully as Emma grits her teeth and tries to get the ship under control again. Slowly the ship regains it's stability and stops spinning but by the time she has pulled the ship to a stop by cutting off the full engine power to ease their recovery, it's too late. And the situation has turned even more dire.

“Oh no, we're surrounded,” Emma noted breathlessly.

Three ships surrounded them, the other two having arrived seemingly out of nowhere. All with canons pointed right at them.

There was no way out of this. They had to surrender. The two of them watched in trepidation as the ships came closer, one of them boarding their own ship through the docking bay. “I'm sorry,” Emma whispered as they were boarded. There was no way they could fight against a whole crew just the two of them.

“It's alright. You tried,” Regina told her. She tried to put on a brave smile but Emma could see behind it. See the fear there. Their cockpit was invaded shortly and they both stood up, as men of green skin and clad in tight gray outfits and carrying plasma rifles with them, came in. Regina and Emma stood up, hands held up helplessly.

“We have secured the princess. But there seems to be an alien with her,” the leader reported into his shoulder com, all of them looking Emma over oddly.

“Bring them both aboard,” was the response and the two women were lead out.

* * *

They were kept in separate cells on the alien ship, Emma pacing hers like a lion in a cage. The inside of the ship had not been so different from her own and she pondered if she could pilot the ship to escape if the chance arose. For now, she was stuck here. Feeling hopeless and scared.

And what of Regina? Would she be okay?

They had called her princess. But why? Was that her nickname? Or her title?

Emma grunted in annoyance and kicked the bars holding her prisoner. The kick rang out in the metal drab hallway, only hurting her toe. She hissed in pain and sat down on the bunk. She hated this. How the hell would they get out of this now?

Old tales of aliens probing their victims played in her mind and she rubbed a hand over her face. Surely, they wouldn't do that to her, would they?

She can feel the ship begin to decelerate. Her heart leaps up into her throat. They've arrived to wherever _here_ is.

* * *

Regina and Emma were lead out side by side, arms pinned behind their backs with some heavy chains that seemed to drain the energy from Emma, leaving her so enervated all she could focus on was just walking forwards. Even that seemed too slow for the aliens, for the one behind her prodded her with the butt of this gun. Two walked behind them, two on their sides, and two in front of them, so they had no chance of escape.

Emma was kindly given her space suit to wear or else she wouldn't have lasted on this planet. The two of them were walked from the ship to a giant building made of spires and spirals, all in a gray sheen. The doors open for them to reveal the building was made from the same texture inside. Emma would have marveled at all this and taken to recording it, had it not been for the fact she was a prisoner.

They were lead to a giant hall, made of metals of various origins. The ceiling was high and their footsteps echoed as they walked down the room towards a dais on which a throne was sat, made of twisted metal that could not look comfortable to sit on. Two guards stood by the woman's sides and she rose when she saw the military escort.

She was made of plants, wearing a long robe of red flesh like material that revealed one shoulder and swooped down her back a bit. It reminded Emma of Roman clothing. The woman's hair was constructed of thorns that only grew little berries on them. The hair trailed down her shoulders and to the top of her back.

“Regina, you have done a most foolish thing,” the queen began. “Running from your own people? And from your own world? All for what- foolish morals?”

“They are not foolish morals, mother,” she said and Emma watched this exchange with wide eyes. This woman, this woman who had hunted Regina down was her own mother? And Regina was the daughter to an entire nation of people who she thought too cruel?

Now it made sense why Regina had never wanted to mention this- anything of her past.

“I care for others. I cannot help it.”

“It is time you grew out of that foolish phase!” the queen stood up. “I knew I should have never married your father. He was soft and his softness passed down unto you. But you cannot be like that, especially if you are to take my throne from me. You need to be hard and callous. And you will be so.”

“I already told you I would not-”

“Your rebellious nature is not cute anymore, Regina. You and I both know you cannot afford to not take the throne. So stop acting childish and stop playing your games,” the queen said coldly. Her eyes shifted over to Emma. “And who is this?”

“Leave her out of this- she does not deserve to be here,” Regina spoke up.

The queen's eyes flashed with malice. “Send her to the dungeons. We will dissect her there.”

“No!” Regina cried out but her cries went on deaf ears.

Emma began to struggle in her bonds and against the guards who grabbed her. Dissect her? Shit, for what! She started screaming and yelling in their own language but they did not seem to care.

“You have no need to concern yourself with the lower filth,” the queen said and Regina's reply was lost on Emma because she was screaming so hard. One of the guards lost patience with her struggling and hit her square in the stomach making her black out from pain.

* * *

When Emma came to, she found herself in another dungeon. This one less clean than the ship one, and colder. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, finding that at least she had no chains on them. She could make out voices talking, instantly recognizing the voice of Regina. She angled her face to look at them. They were arguing a few feet away from her cage. The queen had her body regally held up while Regina's body was passionate, gestures wide and open. Frantic even.

“And why can I not harvest her organs? She is of no use to me,” Cora said disapprovingly.

“It would be useless.”

“She _is_ useless,” Cora said stiffly and coldly.

“Mother, I love her!” Regina shouted out, pausing Cora. The words had ripped straight from her chest, unable to be contained. She almost looked panicked when she realized what she'd said, but thankfully her mother had turned away so she could not see Regina's face.

The woman looked at Emma, examining her coldly as if how could anyone love such a thing. “I do suppose she makes an adorable pet,” she clicked her tongue with reproach. Emma closed her eyes, pretending she was still knocked out.

Regina's face suddenly went neutral, stoic even, and she spoke in a monotone voice. As if she knew emotion would not appeal to her mother and she was giving up. “....yes, so let me keep her. Please. She's an intelligent species too. She can trade us the secrets of her people.” Emma opened her eyes at this. Regina did not meet Emma's eyes as the blonde felt the words cut right into her chest. Regina's love for her....had only been that of an affection of a master to it's pet? Was it because she could not see Emma as her equal either? Emma felt sick to her stomach with despair. She had thought her love with Regina was unique in every sense of the word. But it was just a joke.

“Hmm, the secrets of her people. So there are more of her?” Cora's eyes gleamed hungrily on Emma's imprisoned form.

“Well...there used to be. Only a handful of them survived, turning to space to find a new home planet, but it sadly seems that mission failed too,” Regina quickly fibbed. “But, maybe we can mine the intelligence she holds and use it to advance our own.”

“She'll stay then, but you are to watch her carefully, understood?” Cora turned to Regina who nodded her head somberly. Then with a click of heels, Cora was gone. Emma lifted up her red rimmed eyes to meet Regina's cold ones.

“Regina....how could you...” Emma breathed out. “How could you betray me like this? How could you treat me as a pet? I thought you were different.”

“You thought wrong, Emma,” Regina said cruelly, voice not even wavering as she looked at Emma with derision on her face. “How do you think my species advances itself? By being nice to others? No, we harvest other species and their intelligence before we cull them. Do not think yourself the exception.”

Emma's sight got blurry as those words hit her hard. Something inside her told her not to lose hope. That Regina....she knew Regina. She truly wasn't like this. She wasn't cold and aloof. No one could fake that for seven years. “You didn't mention my home planet. About how it's-”

“I am done here. Don't waste your breath, human. You might need it,” she sneered and then left.

Emma swallowed. What was going on? All she knew was she felt deeply hurt.

* * *

Emma became an experiment to them. She was put into an all glass room where she was examined by scientists all day and night long. They observed what she ate, how she slept, how she kept herself entertained. And when they were not observing her, they were testing her. Giving her puzzles to solve, pushing her endurance, and drawing her blood. They even put her in a maze she had to find a way out of. She felt like a rat in a cage. It was so demeaning and humiliating, but after the first two months, she stopped caring.

Regina and Cora would stop by from time to time, and whisper to each other about something. Emma tried to catch Regina's gaze each time, in hopes they could wordlessly communicate with each other. What was going on? What was Regina doing? Was she....was she truly giving up on Emma? Was she truly this heartless?

Emma didn't know what else to think.

Maybe she should just make a run for it?

So she set about trying to make her own escape plan, memorizing routines of the scientists, paying close attention to details, reserving her strength. But she could find no feasible way out of this. She was always well guarded and she knew the strength of this alien species. She stood no chance of one on one combat with them.

When she realized that, her hope was crushed and depression began to steadily overtake her. She no longer cared to try anything. Even the prodding of the scientists could do nothing to make her budge or take part in their experiments.

“Your pet seems to have reached it's usefulness,” Cora commented, looking down at Emma as she lay back in her cage which she had first been put in when she arrived.

Regina swallowed hard but her face belied nothing as she spoke, “seems so.”

“We can gleam nothing more from her. You will be in charge of disposing of her.”

“Mother, I-”

“I will find you a new pet. I must say, I was worried you'd never come around to seeing my point of view, but I am glad you realized how superior we are.”

“I saw I couldn't run from you, or my legacy, so I stayed,” Regina answered monotonously.

“You still have much to learn,” Cora said and the two of them walked away.

Emma would be disposed would she? She felt nothing at those words. Nothing. Because nothing mattered anymore. She merely curled up into a tighter ball and closed her eyes so sleep would take her.

She woke up to a gentle voice calling her name. She sat up, limbs aching from not having moved in so long. Through bleary eyes she blinked at Regina.

“Emma, I'm here to save you,” Regina said breathlessly. There was a smear of blood on her clothing; it was not hers.

“How....how do I know that I can trust you?” Emma asked, because she had spent six long months locked up. Six long months where Regina had played her role of hating and deriding Emma well. So well, that Emma truly sometimes believed Regina could be this cruel. That she had only faked being nice.

But then she remembered Regina tenderly watering plants on their ship and it confuses her even more.

“Emma....I....I don't expect you to trust me given how I had to treat you. But it was the only way I could see a solution out of this situation. Please, you just have to trust me. We don't have much time. We need to leave now. I have a ship waiting for us.” She cracks open the cage, holds out her hand. Emma looks at it, looks at Regina's eyes. She can feel the urgency in them. Can see the love shining bright in them. And it makes Emma feel something for the first time in a long time. Feeling anything is better than nothing. She takes the chance.

“Okay,” Emma says and grabs her hand.

Whatever Regina did, it sends the castle toppling on itself. Explosions rock the structure of it and smoke fills the air. The rifle she carries in her hand is tossed to Emma who quickly figures it out, while Regina produces a pistol for herself.

Any guards that get in their way are dealt with, but not without repercussion. Regina takes three hits. One that rips her ear clean off, another that scrapes a deep gouge into her abdomen and another that lodges into her thigh and makes her limp. She does not say anything about the pain, merely rushing Emma along, making sure she protects Emma's flank.

Everything is a blur, and Emma feels out of shape. She has not seen much action in months and she almost doesn't know how to react to it, her senses dulled by imprisonment. It makes her feel guilty that she cannot have Regina's back in the same way the alien is protecting her.

“Shit,” Regina grunts back and pushes Emma back so they can dodge the spray of different bullets coming right around the corner. The corner that leads to a doorway that leads to their escape. They're so close, and yet so far.

“We cannot get hit by those,” Regina says. “But we can't hit him like this. We'd have to step out around the corner and we _cannot_ get hit.” She emphasizes this dearly.

“Would they really hit you? You're Cora's daughter.”

“She would have me suffer and be in pain so as to learn my lesson,” Regina responded with.

“We don't have another choice but to do this,” Emma said. Regina had clearly been outfitted with more weapons, given the empty holes where canisters could go on her chest armor. But she had used them up trying to get to Emma.

Regina thinned her lips. “We need another idea.”

“Can't you use your plant powers?” Emma asked. The bullet barge had stopped now and they could hear his heavy footsteps approaching. Shit, they had no cover here. And few bullets remaining.

“No, that's not how they work and even I wouldn't dare get in the way of this weapon,” she said.

They stood there, backs to the wall, time running out as another explosion shook the building. Debris fell around them, showering them in a dust covering. Alarms blared loudly. “Emma...if we don't make it, I just want you to know I am sorry you were dragged in this. Into my family drama-”

“Don't apologize just yet,” Emma said, gritting her teeth and dredging up her courage. She cocked her gun. Regina saw the reckless look in Emma's eyes.

“Emma don't-” she reached a hand out but Emma was already swinging around the corner and sliding. She had timed the guard's steps so that he had just taken one forward with his left foot, tipping him unfavorably to depend on his left side. Old training kicked in and she prayed she was not wrong.

She slid towards him on the right side, taking his slim disadvantage as she levered her rifle up at him. He scrambled to aim at her but she was moving too fast and lower than he expected her to be. He left bullets fly, and they ricocheted, kicking up shards of metal wall. But she had a better aim of him. From below she pulled the trigger, shooting him in the jaw. His head went careening back as he fell backwards, the gun dropping from his hands.

Emma stopped her slide and got to her feet. Regina peered around the corner as Emma grinned at her.

“You idiot,” Regina breathed out, running to her. “Don't do that again.” And then she kissed her. It was a brief kiss, but it conveyed all of Regina's feelings for her. Her true feelings. Not the one she put on display for her mother. Emma wanted to kiss her again, but they were out of time.

“Let's go,” Regina said and they rushed out to the ship dock.

They ran towards the ship which was at the end of the bay. Their footsteps and hurried breath was loud in their ears. They were two ship lengths away when the doors opened and behind them, guards emerged. The sound of weapons firing zipped past them as bullets flew by their heads.

“Fuck,” Emma cursed and fired her rifles at them, hoping to take some down. But the distance was too far for her weapon, and with ten clicks, it was finally emptied. She threw the useless weapon aside.

“Try mine,” Regina tossed her the weapon and they got up the walkway to the ship, bullets hitting the metal but not denting it.

Emma stopped in the entrance, firing off the last rounds on her gun as Regina went in and quickly freed the emergency weapon that was strapped to the nearby door. She tossed it to Emma who took it and threw away the pistol in exchange for a semi automatic.

“Hold them off while I start the ship,” Regina told her and rushed to the cockpit.

Emma nodded her head and let bullets loose, hitting two guards who went down hard. They were getting closer, and she ducked behind the doorway as they fire back at her, bullets dinging and whizzing past her. She fired blindly from her gun and the ship began to roar under her feet. Quickly thinking, she fired off the last of her bullets and then slammed the button to close the door. The walkway rolled up and the door closed, the guards now six feet away.

“Hold on,” came Regina's voice from the speakers and Emma held onto a nearby railing as the ship ascended and then blasted forwards, leaving the ship dock behind. Regina maneuvered the ship expertly and out of the way of the alien planet. Emma held onto the railing for dear life as they exited the atmosphere roughly, in a hurry to get away.

When the ship was finally free, and the sailing smoother, Emma let go of the railing, hands shaking with effort of holding on. She let out a wild laugh of relief.

They made it.

They had escaped.

For now.

Exhilaration and elation fill Emma, the rush of adrenaline cooling in her veins.

Regina comes to find her, setting the ship to autopilot for now. “They'll come looking for us, of course. But I know somewhere we can hide in this universe where we should be safe for a while. I set the ship coordinates there. The ship is more advanced than yours, so we should get there in about two months.”

Regina smiled, feeling triumphant. They could finally be together once more. Emma returned her smile when all of a sudden it faded as she stumbled and fell. Regina caught her in her arms, setting her down gently to the floor. Emma looked down at her own body in shock and saw that blood was staining the side of her suit.

“Oh,” was all she could think to say. She had gotten hit and hadn't even felt it.

“No, no, no....” Regina gasped out, applying pressure to the wound.

“It's fine, Regina,” Emma tried to tell Regina even as she could feel her fingers going shockingly numb. It was just a bullet wound. She was sure alien technology could fix that with ease.

“No, it's not. Fuck,” Regina cursed, desperation in her gaze. The blood was now turning black. Was it supposed to do that? “They hit you with- I'm _so_ sorry Emma. They hit you with a poisoned shard.” Oh like the guard that had been using it before. Was it that bad? Surely, it couldn't be. Not when they had just gotten away. They were supposed to be fine now, damn it!

“I'll be fine, I just have to get the poison out,” Emma mumbled as Regina panicked above her.

Tears were streaming down her face, plopping down onto Emma's face as she stared up, her vision starting to go white. “I'm sorry, Emma,” Regina's voice was a whisper. “There is no way to- to get this out in time. I-I just....” she extracted herself from Emma. “I'm sorry. And please forgive me for what I do next.”

“Regina, wait. Where are you going?” Emma called out after her but her voice was failing her.

So this was how it ended. Not even a chance to report her findings to mission command. Not even a chance to have one last goodbye kiss from Regina.

“Regina, I'm the one whose sorry,” she mumbled out and hoped that Regina could still hear her. Her vision went white, and then stopped.

* * *

Emma woke up with a splitting headache. The air smelled heavily of grass after rain and she could not understand why. She sat up, finding her side ached but when she looked down there was nothing there but a hole in her suit over where she'd been hit and clean pristine skin. And on her chest, lay a flower with red blooms and white strands that seemed to go outward. Why was this here? She twirled the stem in her hand, holding onto the flower fiercely.

What the hell had happened? Last she recalled she'd been hit and Regina had been crying...

“Regina....?” she called out, and the ship seemed too quiet. She got up, swallowing hard. “Regina...?' she tried again.

She walked through the whole ship, heart in her throat as she tried to find the alien. But she wasn't anywhere to be found. Crushing dread settled itself into Emma's guts. What the fuck was going on- just what-

That's when her eye caught it. A note on a ripped out sheet of paper, tapped to the seat. She pulled it free, noticing the sloppy writing as if written in haste.

Emma recognized it as Regina's writing, from their sessions of teaching each other how to write in their languages.

Regina had left her a note. Why had she left Emma a note?

_I could see no other way to save you. I know you would have gotten mad if I had suggested it or told you I wanted to do this. You would have rather died than see me harmed. But I am not harmed, Emma. This is something my people can do, give up the sum of their parts, their life essence for something that needs it more. Though, we have never been moved to do this, since it is risky and there is no telling what the end result will be._

_I hope, that my love for you will have saved you and that perhaps one day I can return to you. I do not know if I will be the same, or if I will even ever return. I will not be with you for many years but I have waited this long to meet you, I can wait some more._

_Because it was my fault this all happened._

_Because I do love you, with all my heart._

_I love you so much my life is yours. Now and forever._

Emma looked at the single flower stem in her hand, that she had woken up clutching.

She wasn't sure she understood everything. Or how Regina had accomplished this, but Emma would take care of her. She would make sure Regina would flourish as well. Just as Regina had allowed Emma to flourish, all those years ago when they first met.

Still, the pain inside her chest at the sacrifice Regina had made hit her hard. It was so selfless. So pure. How could Emma have ever doubted the kindness in Regina's soul.

“I love you too, Regina,” she told the plant. “You shouldn't have done this.”

Because there was no telling if Regina would be the same person as before when she finally returned, if she could even return at all.

Fresh tears spilled out from Emma's eyes and the ache she felt in her chest doubled her over. “Regina you miserable honorable idiot,” she gasped out, nearly choking on her anguish, as hunched over she shed her misery for many, many moments to come.

_Two months later_

Emma sat in the pilot's seat, looking out at the space that warped past her as the ship flew to the destination that Regina had calibrated it to. Her arms were crossed behind her head and she leaned back, content for once in a long, long time. Thankfully there had been no issue with any of Regina's people and the ride had been smooth.

“This ship sucks,” Emma commented to no one in particular. “You don't have any movies on board and barely anything to do in way of entertainment. Other than crying and moping around I have nothing to do. And the food,” she pulled a long face. “What do you eat? It all looks like slop. Or maybe that's just the ship food.”

There was no answer and she knew not to expect one.

“We're gonna get there soon, you know. I don't know how I'm going to fare there, but I trust you enough to know that you picked a place I can probably inhabit. And that will keep us off the radar. I hope it has a beach,” this time Emma turned to look down at the potted plant on the seat next to hers. It had grown in size, it's stem growing sturdier, it's blossoms flowering.

She knew Regina couldn't talk back to her, but sometimes she swore when she talked to her, she could see the petals curling up in response as if smiling, or the leaves swaying happily.

_Patience_ , she had to remind herself.

And all would be well.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [If we close our eyes maybe we can reach the stars [Art]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26197954) by [Lucazt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucazt/pseuds/Lucazt)
  * [If we close our eyes maybe we can reach the stars - [Manips]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26157334) by [Dragoon23](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragoon23/pseuds/Dragoon23)




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